I got a shock yesterday. My Little Miss Sunshine approach burnt itself out in the face of ongoing coolth.
Maybe it is not for you to warm the coolth? Is ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ an aspect of your essential self?
I guess she’s not. She sure hit the buffers yesterday – right at the end of a long day out.
-26- The solid must be the root of the light. The still must be the master of the restless. Therefore, wise people when travelling all day do not lose sight of their baggage cart. Although there are beautiful scenes to see, they remain quietly in their own place. Should a lord of ten thousand chariots appear more frivolous than a simple traveller? To be light is to lose the root. To be restless is to lose the master. (Tao Te Ching, chap 26)
Yes, well, this is extraordinarily apposite. Yesterday, out travelling all day, I applied (excessive?) lightness and levity to make it all ‘easier’ – and then maybe resented (?) that in-pouring when I ‘lost sight of my baggage cart’ (had a bike accident). In his commentary on this chapter, Stefan Stenudd says, ‘Eagerness to act tends to create more problems than it solves.‘ That could be very much said of me yesterday. ‘Remaining quietly in my own place’ despite the aforementioned coolth, might have been more helpful.
Tbh, I feel stressed and nervous by the behaviours arising.
‘To be light is to lose the root. To be restless is to lose the master.’
Grant me gravitas and stillness then, please.
The word ‘frivolous’ above resonates with yesterday’s word, ‘ridiculous’. Are you ready to honour the light-in-you as ‘Light’, as opposed to ‘levity’?
Levity as opposed to gravity/gravitas?
It is not about becoming weightier or more earnest. It’s about understanding that Light is simply not frivolous, ridiculous or childlike – just as the Divine Feminine is not a weekend festival posture. Sometimes we throw away the gold in favour of fragments of slate because we cannot recognise innate value for what it is.
‘The solid must be the root of the light.’ This means that underpinning our external warmth must be an inner anchor of solid gold – nothing else is weighty enough to create the groundedness required for the work ahead.
How shall I develop this weighty inner anchor of solid gold? I have a certain sense of it…
Stenudd comments: ‘Being heavy and still, a ruler does not eagerly spring into action, but waits until it is time, and then does just what is called for. Nothing more.’
So, to this question: How shall I develop this weighty inner anchor of solid gold?
***20 min unguided Med with Insight Timer***
The realisation that being anchored is not about: being a floating ship that can cast out an anchor that will fall to the sea floor and create some weightedness.
Being anchored is about having an internal anchor, and therefor being weighted and still in oneself.
When my meditation focus shifted today from ‘I am floating like a balloon on a string attached to a golden anchor’ to ‘There is a gold anchor in me’, I noticed how much more solid and upright I felt. No more floating. No more ‘Little Miss Sunshine shines a fuzzy light on things’. Solidity internally – of gold, of Light, of qi.
Good. It’s a safer sensation than floating, isn’t it? Do you fear people will be put off by your solidity? Well, maybe it is triggering for some people not to feel they can push or manipulate you. That’s a good thing to remember. Their being triggered by your solidity is a warning sign to you. Their being triggered by your jovial facade is par for the course – they are seeking your authenticity, as are you.
So, given this. What’s the next instruction?
The word you were looking for in your ‘How To 1’ post was ‘Message’.
Ah. Good. Well, what’s our Message for today?
Be vigilant in yourself today – vigilant as the wise person keeps an eye on her baggage. Keep wakeful. Keep anchored.
And the teaching?
Why do you wait for another’s approval? Post on. Keep anchored.
I am anchored